Leiningen Versus the Ants

An allusion is a brief reference to a specific person, place, or thing that the reader would know due to the reference’s historical or cultural significance. Stephenson uses literary allusions in this story, meaning he references the protagonists of two major literary works in the narrative to illustrate particular scenes more clearly.

When describing how the ants are using leaves to ferry themselves across the water ditch, Stephenson alludes to Shakespeare’s Macbeth anticipating the arrival of the supernatural forest of Birnam—the only thing that can defeat him on Dunsinane Hill. This allusion relates both to how a seemingly benign aspect of nature can become harmful, as the leaves now are for Leiningen and his men, and to the incredible, supernatural abilities of the ants. Leiningen contrasts himself with Macbeth, knowing that his problem with the ants has nothing to do with witches or black magic and everything to do with the ants’ real and natural abilities to organize against him.

In another scene, when Leiningen rises at dawn and observes the gathering ants from the roof of his house, Stephenson describes the sight as something out of Dante.